steppingintorivers.com

January is over already, I can’t believe it. Although I’m hoping it’ll take the cold with it.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. I think it’s about time to learn how to write my own WordPress templates. Can anyone explain to me why software development books are so expensive? I want to grab the Indigo clerk by the hand, and take him to the computer and show him what Amazon.ca is listing. I warrant it’s in my finances’ best interest that I can’t walk around the aisles of Amazon. I do better avoiding the impulse purchase when I know the impulse is followed by a 3 week - indefinite wait.

Wordpress.com just got billions of venture capital. Rumble rumble redesigning “the forum” experience. And the free blogs hosted by Wordpress just blew open file capacity. They are using Amazon S3 to offer 3 gb file hosting. That’s plenty for free. If I were to do some kind of random, anonymous dribble, I might think twice about picking Blogger over Wordpress. Yar.

I’ve not much to say, but I feel as though it’s been a while. Dare I presume that a declaration of not much to talk about is worth either of our time? Ha. Well, if it helps me sleep. We build this reality one bubble at a time.

My headphones still haven’t arrived. I can’t say I’ve been too impressed with the Solotech experience so far. It’s disappointing. I was hoping they would become a good supplier. Steve’s wore me thin with my defective MOTU. And guy at Moog Audio wouldn’t even help me carry my new speakers out to the cab. That’s right, I had to two trip it to the cab: leaving gear in the back of a cab while I go back for the rest. Not cool.

I’m running out of audio boutiques in my area. What a first world problem.

Oh, did I mention, I got new speakers? The listening just got a whole lot better.

Apt too. I’ve started mixing a concert for Sandeep. I’ll be doing a stereo version, and an octophonic version. There’s plenty I can do here from home: scrubbing etc. I’ll do the octo at Hexagram. It will be good to have a reason to put more time in there. I just can’t help but shudder at trying to wrangle an 8-point source mix out of ProTools. Protools will only spew 7.1. Let’s just say that the film industry has more sway over the development process than academic art music. And that makes my job a bit more tough. Try doing a surround mix in two mingled 5.1 rings. 10.2? With no panning between the rings. Boo.

I can’t say I’ve grown much affection for ProTools. I’d say as with Windows: broad-user base does not declare the most eloquent solution. I’ll take my Apple Logic experience hands down. I find ProTools likes to be used in a certain way. Deviation from using it “properly” will get you nowhere. Maybe I just lack the hours of slugging it out, relearning the app, but I find my brain doesn’t click to the beat with ProTools. I think my odd behavior patters are much more compatible with the extensibility of Logic.

Poof. Bottom line: I’m getting paid specifically to use my ears. Makes me happy. Let’s see if we can shed the neck-tie and make this money for creativity more of a common occurrence. I swear I smell an ebook burning somewhere.

I’ve been loving Scrivener. Any other stock-devalued Mac users should check it out. A writing environment for assembling and arranging fragments of text. Most of my theatre writing has come from cue card sessions, so this format works very well for me. Which is a good thing. I have a play to write!